Kalimpong

Kalimpong was Bhutanese until 1865, when the British took it after a short war, and for the next century it was one of the great trading towns of the Himalaya. Mule trains came down from Lhasa over the Jelep La carrying wool, and went back with cloth, tea and tobacco. Traders, missionaries, scholars and exiles all passed through. The border closed after 1962 and the trade ended, and the town turned quietly towards schools, flowers and its own business.

It sits at about 1,250 metres on a ridge between two hills, looking across the Teesta to Sikkim and, on a clear morning, to Kanchenjunga. It is smaller, lower and warmer than Darjeeling, and it has a fraction of the visitors — which, for most of the people who come, is the point.

The town's mix shows its history. Nepali is the common language; Lepcha, the oldest community of these hills, keep their culture alive in a small museum and in villages around. Zang Dhok Palri Phodang on Durpin hill, consecrated by the Dalai Lama in 1976, is the largest monastery. Dr Graham's Homes, founded by a Scottish missionary in 1900, still run as a school on the slopes above town, and Rabindranath Tagore spent several of his last summers at Gouripur House.

Kalimpong grows things. Its nurseries have exported orchids, gladioli and cacti for decades, and you can walk through several of them. The food is hill food — thukpa, momos, phaley (fried bread stuffed with meat or cheese) and dried churpi — and there is Kalimpong cheese, a firm local cheese first made by Swiss Jesuits in the mid-twentieth century and still sold in the bazaar.

Be on Deolo before sunrise — it is the highest point in town and the mountain is usually gone by nine. Take the walk through the old bazaar on a Wednesday or Saturday, the haat days, when villagers come in to sell. Skip the Teesta rafting in the monsoon months; the river is not a toy then. And if you are coming from or going to Gangtok, ask locally about NH10 before you set off — a Saint will know which road is open.

Kalimpong's springs are running dry and water is trucked into town in the lean season; use it accordingly. Ask before photographing inside monasteries, walk clockwise around stupas and prayer wheels, and keep to the paths in the nurseries. Buy cheese, churpi and plants from the people who make them rather than the highway stalls.

Kalimpong faces Sikkim across the river, and Gangtok is about three hours on. It is larger and busier, but it is the door to Tsomgo, Nathu La and the north — the road the mule trains once used.